The Act to Save America's Forests is a bill in the United States Congress.

The Act to Save America's Forests is the largest, most comprehensive forest protection and restoration legislation ever considered by the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

The main section of the bill primarily affects how the U.S. Forest Service manages the 190 million acres of our national forest system. It will stop the U.S. Forest Service from using destructive forms of logging, such as clearcutting, and will prevent the Forest Service from logging ecologically important forest areas such as Ancient forests and roadless forests.

The Act to Save America's Forests will:

Stop clearcutting in our national forests

Require the Forest Service to protect and restore the biological diversity of the natural forest ecosystems in our national forests

Prevent logging in the last Ancient and roadless forests throughout our national forest system

Transfer the Giant Sequoia National Monument to the National Park Service

Require the National Park Service to undertake a comprehensive national study for potential new national parks

The Act to Save America's Forests was first introduced in the U.S. Congress in 1996. The Act will end clearcutting on federal lands. Logging will be banned in the last core areas of forest biodiversity: Ancient Forests, roadless areas, riparian zones, and over 100 other specially named forest areas throughout the national forest system. The forests not part of the protected core areas will be restored with their original native biodiversity through active and passive measures. A strictly limited amount of ecologically compatible logging will be allowed outside of the core areas.

In 2006, a section was added to the Act to Save America's Forests that would transfer the Giant Sequoia National Monument to the National Park Service.

In 2008, a section was added to the legislation that calls for a comprehensive new study of the ecological regions of the United States by the National Park Service and recommendations for potential new national parks, based on the EPA Level III Ecoregion Map of the United States. The resulting study will be reported to the U.S. Congress.

Passing the Act to Save America's Forests will restore our national Forests into biologically diverse natural forests. The Forest Service will be transformed into the world's largest forest ecosystem protection and restoration organization. This will be a beacon to the world, setting an entirely new standard of what is possible in protecting and restoring ecosystems.

Save America's Forests is the nationwide campaign to protect and restore America's wild and natural forests.
Citizen involvement is how our laws are made. Help shape U.S. forest protection policy.
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Together, we can protect and restore America's wild and natural forests!